A Tale of Two Soldiers: A Second Chance
by HellsingKitten
Summary: Sherry Birkin has turned up missing and along with that comes complications. A furious Jake Mueller searches for her while a BSAA squad of familiar faces joins the fray and what they'll find, no one will have expected. Pt. 2
1. Chapter 1

Hugging her knees, Sherry was reminded of her helplessness so many years ago back in Raccoon City when all of those terrible monsters created by her parents had wreaked havoc on the small suburb. Huddling in the corner of her prison cell, she could almost hear her father's ghastly voice once again as he cried out her name…the thought made her shudder.

She hated being locked away, certain events months ago had revived that particular fear though at least she was safe from whatever was happening outside of her confinement. She'd been hearing screams and gunfire for a very long half hour but then it ceased, merging into an eerie silence.

The chill that wafted through the bars of her cell filled the small space with a rotting and rancid odor that stung her nostrils with its familiarity: death.

Pressing herself into a tighter ball, she couldn't help but yell at how stupid she'd been to fall for something like this. The information she'd collected had certainly seemed legit but clearly she'd been set up and it pissed her off that she'd allowed this to happen.

_What would Jake think?_ she thought shaking her head and pushing her fingers through her locks. When she noticed that she held a handful of hair as her hand rested on her shoulder for a moment, she wondered just how long she'd been locked away. Last time she remembered it, she'd been keeping her hair in that stylish short cut Claire had recommended.

The sound of a door opening broke her thoughts and she stood up, moving against the far wall when she heard a series of approaching footfall.

A tall, brown haired man appeared around the corner, his hands cuffed in front of him and his blue shirt stained crimson.

Sherry wearily watched as one of the hooded guards who'd shoved her down here followed behind the man and stopped at her cell. He opened it and gestured for the man to enter.

"You'd better watch your back," the new prisoner said as the guard locked the door and promptly left. He glanced at her and flashed a half grin. "How ya doing?"

Shifting uncomfortably under his gaze, Sherry looked away.

He shrugged as he lowered to the floor and began struggling against his binds. "I always knew airplane rides were a terrible way to get places and this proves that. I tell you one thing I am never getting on a flight ever again."

Curiosity stabbing at the back of her neck, she looked back at him and asked, "What's wrong with airplanes?"

"They never go the way you think they will," he said as he gave up on the cuffs. "Either they crash or there's a delay or, in my case, it stops on some strange landing area and you and everyone aboard are being shuffled somewhere like cattle. Apparently if you fight back though, you get thrown into…whatever this is. Too bad they took my damn gun."

Reminded of the sounds of gunfire earlier, she said, "Was that you then? Causing all that commotion?"

He nodded, shrugged and the nodded again. "Me and another guy though I don't know what happened to him. One moment him and I were letting loose hell with double pistols and the next thing, well you see where it got me."

"What was going on up there? I mean, where are we?"

Examining the cuffs, he replied, "We're somewhere where this is a hell of a lot of sand, a desert maybe." He glanced at her. "So what's your name?"

She rubbed her arm as goose bumps pricked her skin. "I'm Sherry Birkin."

"Well nice to meet you, too bad it isn't under different circumstances. If it was I might be tempted to buy you a drink."

Dressed in a neon pink tube top and yoga shorts, Sherry felt her face heat up and returned back to her huddled position. She'd been at her apartment in Florida, about to go out for a swim in the complex pool when she'd heard something crash and everything went black. Thankful she hadn't chosen to wear her bikini, Sherry shot a quick glance at her cellmate and stifled a sigh when she saw that he seemed more concerned with his handcuffs than her attire. Course she should probably be more concerned about her surrounding and how she was going to get out; not that she hadn't been giving that thought but nothing she'd come up with had been a good plan.

Completely gearless and unable to work up the courage to attack armed men with the fighting skills she'd been taught, she once again felt like that little girl hiding from monsters. But what else could she do?

"Something!"

Sherry looked over at him. "What did you say?"

"Don't mind me," he said. "I'm just trying to think of something, anything really to get out of this…wish I hadn't let my lock pick in my suitcase."

Her brow furrowed together. "Who are you anyway?"

"The name is Billy," he said with a quick glance in her direction. "Billy Coen."


	2. Chapter 2

The Egyptian sun warmed the small bathroom through the window but she didn't feel it. Her focus was enraptured with the reflection in the mirror. The orange hue coloring her eyes was unmistakable and she looked down into the sink at her blood as it washed down the drain. As of three years ago however, vomiting blood was completely usual and she barely noticed anymore.

On the outside she looked the same aside; she hadn't aged in the slightest but within there was a constant battle that so far, she couldn't do anything about.

Glaring back at herself, she stared at the scar on her temple and shook her head; that particular memory still haunted her on a daily basis.

She turned and opened the door behind her when she heard a knock. Standing on the other side with his arms crossed was her friend, his skin deeply tanned and his silky, black hair pulled back in a ponytail. Carlos Oliviera had always been handsome and time had been nothing but kind to him.

"Just checking on ya," he offered, not bothering to hide how his gaze traveled down the length of her body.

Dressed in fitted jeans and a bra, she placed her hands on her hips as her lips curved up. "You don't need to do that, I promised you that was over but…thank you."

Shrugging, he withdrew a data cube from his back pocket and tossed it to her. "We have our coordinates. Gear up and I'll meet you at the car."

"I can't believe this is finally happening," she said sliding through the photos. "What the hell is going on out there?"

Carlos leaned in, his minty breath drawing her attention. "He won't get away this time."

"As long as I don't lose control again, you can be damned sure I won't let him escape. This ends today."

Kneading his fingers through her loose locks, Carlos pulled her close to him and pressed his lips onto hers. His other hand hooked around her waist and slowly climbed up her back, his fingers leaving a trail of delicious warmth on her skin.

Pushing away, she grinned up at him. "We've got work to do and you know I'm not..."

Chuckling, Carlos said, "I know but a guy can dream." He turned and strode towards the door on the other side of the hotel room. "I'll be downstairs." Halfway through the door, he turned and added, "Oh and Sheva, don't forget to take your medicine."

Nodding, she waved him away and returned to her previous position in front of the sink. Bending down she pulled out a needle from the duffel bag at her feet and stared at the label. Resisting the urge to crush the damn thing, Sheva jabbed it into the side of her neck and watched the orange glow dissolve from her eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

Twenty four hours had passed since the airplane transporting a new BSAA recruit had gone silent. It had vanished on the radar deep over the Egyptian desert and now a recon team was in the works.

Rebecca Chambers hopped out of the landed chopper and shook hands with the team member that greeted her.

Chris Redfield had had a certain boyish charm to him when she'd first met him so many years ago and while his skin now held a bronze hue to it and his hair was still stylishly trimmed short, his overall appearance had matured into a rugged handsomeness. Wearing a black tank top, Rebecca had to resist the urge to stare at the large muscles that bulged against the thin fabric.

"It's good to have you on the team," Chris Redfield said clapping his hand onto her shoulder. "It'll be interesting to see what else you can do aside from playing the piano well."

Walking inside the dome shaped hanger to the left of the helipad, Rebecca smirked. "Very funny, you're just mad because your skills suck."

"If you guys are talking about Chris' piano skills," Jill said heading towards them from the office in the far corner "Then yeah, he needs work."

Rebecca watched Jill Valentine sashay towards them and recalled that envy she'd felt the first time the two women had met. Being rather short, Rebecca had instantly wished she had the long, shapely legs Jill was blessed with and while she'd learned to love her pigeon brown hair, she stared at the golden locks Jill was currently sporting and felt that stab of jealousy at the back of her neck. She wouldn't call herself self-conscious, more very aware of her flaws or shortcomings.

Seeing the cutoff capris Jill wore, Rebecca regretted not going with the green shorts she had originally planned on wearing to show off her own legs. Just like her hair she'd come to accept them and even thought they were her best asset but second guessing herself had become a regular thing recently. Musing about it more, she decided that she would strive to be more confident in choices, after all if she couldn't trust her first pick in clothes, how could she ever move up in rank in the BSAA.

Stopping next to one of the beige jeeps in the center of the room, Chris grinned and asked, "When did it become gang up on Chris day?"

"All I'm saying is learn how to play a piano," Jill said wiping a bead of sweat off her forehead.

Chris folded his arms. "Right, I'll just stop doing that whole saving the world thing so I can open a secret door." He waved his hand dismissively. "No, it's called a gun."

"And here it comes," Jill teased.

"Hey, I have never bragged about saving the world, you know since _so_ many people have done it." He followed this with a stare at the two of them.

Unable to stop herself, Rebecca burst into laughter, nearly doubling over. When Chris and Jill joined in, she peeked at the two of them; they were certainly legends for all of their heroic deeds but more than that, they were human.

"Well that seems to have broken the ice," Jill observed a moment later. "Pleasure to see you again, Chambers, sad that it's under such circumstances."

Rebecca nodded, remembering the very reason she was even there. "Right, so I read the general brief on the way over here and the part about the strange howling the locals have heard at night worried me. After what all of us have been through I'm just wondering what exactly we should be prepared for."

"There haven't been any other reports on the matter but we haven't heard a single thing about bio terrorism in these parts," Jill said.

Chris ran his fingers through his hair. "Still, be prepared for anything. If the plane had simply gone down we would have gotten some kind of S.O.S. but there's been nothing. Something is definitely wrong here and while we can hope for the best, we all know when things don't make sense, the reason is never simple."

Rebecca nodded and glanced at the jeep Chris was still leaning against. Her eyes noticed that its back was covered with a pinned down tarp. "What's in the back there?"

A goofy grin spread across Chris' lips. "Extra firepower."

Jill chuckled as she pulled her hair into her signature ponytail. "You sound way too happy about that."

"Hey, I am a man and as such, I like, no I have the right to like big ass guns."

"Overcompensating much," Jill asked unable to stop the grin that cracked her lips.

Rebecca suddenly had a coughing fit as she strained to keep her eyes on the car.

Chris' mouth fell open as he stared at Jill. "I will have you know that…" He trailed off as Rebecca began to snicker and threw his hands into the air as he walked away. "So inappropriate for work!"

When he disappeared into the office, both women burst into laughter.

"So, what do you think of Africa so far?" Jill asked when she'd calmed down.

Having let her hair grow out to her shoulders and starting to sweat due to the dusty heat inside the hanger, Rebecca began pulling her hair into a loose bun atop her head. "I can honestly say I don't know how anyone lives here." She wiped the perspiration from the back of her neck. "I love the snow…what're the chances of seeing snow here, right now?"

Jill laughed and replied, "None at all." She pulled her phone out. "Open your network so I can transfer the new brief."

Rebecca took her own phone out and did so, accepting the documents when prompted. "Got it."

"Good, love over that and familiarize yourself with everything we're bringing." Jill gestured towards a couple cases beside the jeeps. "We'll be leaving in a few hours."

Nodding, Rebecca began scrolling through the pages, stopping when she came across a photo of the new, now missing recruit. He, however, wasn't who she was focused on; in the shadowy background of the picture was a man who looked all too familiar.

"No way," she whispered.

**Line Break**

The door to Leon's office flew off its hinges and a red-faced Jake Mueller entered, his hands balled into fists.

Leon go to his feet and waved his hand at his secretary as she ran in, a phone in hand. "It's alright Patricia. Hold my calls." When she left he put his hands into his pants pockets and said, "Good to see you, Jake."

"Don't try to pacify me, old man," Jake spat.

"Old man?" Leon repeated running his fingers through his hair; nope it was still pretty thick and glancing at his reflection in the window to his left, he didn't spot any gray hairs. "I'm not that old."

"Do not joke with me," Jake said jabbing his finger at him. "You know exactly why I'm here."

"Yeah," Leon agreed with a slight nod. "You're wasting your time though. I haven't found anything to pinpoint her location. We're still looking."

"Well there has to be something you've missed. Where's the file and I'll look myself."

"File?"

"Yeah, you Uncle Sam boys love your files so where are hers? You know a fresh pair of eyes and all that."

Leon picked up a file at the top of a pile of them and held it out over his desk. "If you do find something, please tell me because I have over and over those reports and…" He exhaled a long breath. "If something were to happen to her I won't forgive myself."

Jake eyed him carefully as he took it. "Yeah well, that would make two of us." He opened it and began reading over the first document.

Leon looked at the scars on Jake's face, a few were new from the last time he'd seen him and the dark overcoat he wore was ripped and stained in more places than one. No wonder no one had alerted him about his arrival, the security downstairs had probably immediately requested his departure. With that in mind he looked at his open doorway.

"How did you get up here?"

Jake shrugged. "Yeah, about that, you should probably have your guys not pull guns and ask questions later." He started to chuckle. "Can you believe they actually thought they could stop me?"

Leon rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess I need to sort that out then."

"Yeah, I guess," Jake said closing the file and turning to leave.

"Hold on," Leon said opening a desk drawer and pulling out a card. "Take this with you and call me day or night if you find something."

Jake looked at the information on the card as he accepted and pocketed it. "Count on it," he said as he left the room.

Leon glanced at his broken door and sat back down. Surprisingly enough, this was not the first time his door had been torn from its hinges this week. Something was happening and he feared the worse if the current players couldn't figure it out.


	4. Chapter 4

Ducking inside a storage closet, Claire quietly closed the door and huddled in the back corner where she stared down at her shaking hands. She laced her fingers together and pressed them against her lips as she tried to calm down. Her heart felt like it was going to tear through her as it pummeled itself against her chest. When her shallow breathes finally slowed down, she began fumbling with the clasp of her backpack and shuffled through its contents until finding her cell. She swore when it powered on and the low battery sign popped up. Swiping it away, she whispered Leon's name and impatiently waited for her phone to find a signal.

That was right, she'd discovered an entrance underneath the sand and promptly gone further in, following her curiosity as she heard more and more strange noises. Being in the desert was one thing but being underground made it almost a certainty that she wouldn't get a call out so when one small bar showed up, she sighed a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

Thinking of Leon she could hear him now as he reminded her to charge her battery before heading out and keep him updated on her location; so far she'd failed in doing both of those things.

"Claire, what the hell is going on," Leon said when his familiar face flashed onto the screen. "I haven't heard from you in over an hour and your phone's been off-"

"No time," she interrupted. "And keep your voice down. Look, I've found out where Sherry is, not to mention some other people. You should be getting the photos now and you were right about this being some kind of operation. I haven't seen anyone in charge but there are lots of guys with guns and who knows what else."

He seemed to notice something and asked, "Is everything alright, Claire? You've got a bruise on your face."

She touched her cheek, finding the abrasion and shook her head. "Never mind that, there is something very wrong here and I…" Her voice cracked and she cleared her throat. "You should have my location so please come and get me."

"Are you safe where you are?"

"I don't know," she replied biting her lip. "Just please come and get me and don't take your time, huh. I don't want to-Leon, Leon?"

Uttering an oath as her phone died, she resisted the strong urge to smash it onto the floor. Instead she shut her eyes and tried to force the image of what she'd seen from her thoughts. It had to be wrong, she had hacked into a terminal and…it had to be wrong, there was no way in hell she could have made such a mistake and then left…

Feeling something on her lip, she touched the warm substance and gasped when she saw blood on her fingertips. Looking ahead, the room started to spin and unable to hold her head up, Claire rested it against the wall and fell unconscious a moment later.


	5. Chapter 5

Jill watched the sandstorm as it engulfed their jeep and pulled her bandana over her mouth and nose. She looked over at Chris.

"Can you see through this?"

"Not at all," he replied with a chuckle. "I figure the storm will pass in a bit and we'll be fine. We're still pretty far off from our destination."

Sitting in the back seat, Rebecca strapped her goggles on and clasped her bandana on as well. While they had gear specifically for breathing through these fierce gusts of sand, they ran on a set amount of oxygen and the group had decided using cloth would be the best unless they had to venture out into one of the storms.

Rebecca couldn't stop thinking about that photo with the recruit but more importantly about who she'd seen in the blurry background. Or rather who she thought it was but there wasn't any way it could be him. It had been years since she'd seen him but that didn't mean she hadn't thought of him. In truth she thought about him nearly everyday, wishing she knew whether he'd even gotten out of the mountains alive and well.

Taking out her phone she brought up the picture again, staring at the shadowy figure behind the recruit. Were her eyes playing tricks on her or was that truly the man she loved and if so, what was he doing in Egypt?

Jill glanced back at the younger girl and smirked when she saw she was examining the brief photo. "Have you met Mr. Ryman?"

Shaking her head, Rebecca said, "No, he just...well isn't he kinda old to be a new recruit?"

"Hah," Jill chuckled tossing a glance at Chris. "You know, our guy right here is pretty close to Ryman's age. You calling him old too?"

Seeing Chris looking at her in the rear view mirror, Rebecca felt her face heat up and she looked out the window. "I-I-I wouldn't know, um are we there yet?"

Jill burst into laughter and squinted out the windshield. The storm had gotten fiercer and the sand was nearly as thick as a wall. She looked over at Chris who was leaning forward with his hands tightly clenched on the wheel.

"Is everything okay?" Jill asked.

"No," Chris replied. "The wheel isn't responding to my movements. I think some of the sand might be jamming...I don't know, something." He stopped the car and shifted it into park. Adjusting the safety measures on his face, he said, "I'm going to head out and see if we're lodged on something maybe."

Jill saw him duck down once he was outside and looked out the window. It was impossble to see anything except the swirling sand around them. "I didn't know storms got like this. I couldn't imagine being a sand person."

"Sand person?" Rebecca repeated.

"Yeah, you know from those space movies and whatnot."

Rebecca tugged at the bandana she wore. "Isn't that what these are..." She trailed off as her attention was drawn to an approaching figure in the distance.

Glancing back, Jill saw the expression she wore and followed her gaze. Seeing the figure as well, she leaned forward and muttered a curse.

Rebecca bolted out the car and ran around to where Chris had gone. "Chris, there's something out here!"

Chris moved from under the vehicle and stood up. He saw what she was talking about and staring at it, he could make out that the figure advancing on them didn't seem to have a physical body. It had a sexless physique and was completely made up of sand.

"Are you seeing that?" Jill said coming up to them.

"What do we do?" Rebecca asked resting her hand on her gun. "Do we shoot?"

The creature raised one of its long, dangling arms and the trio watched as it grew longer and moved overhead of them.

"Scatter!" Jill yelled.

The three leapt out of the way as its arm fell onto the jeep, its sand made fingers easily wrapping themselves around the vehicle and lifted the car into the air.

Jill pulled her gun from its side holster and aimed. "Shoot the damn thing."

Bullets flew a moment later as the two women fired though they merely went through the sand monster, leaving him unfazed.

Rebecca's spent magazine slid from the gun and she took a step back. "This isn't working, any other ideas?"

"It's time for me to show off my big guns," Chris chimed in behind them.

Rebecca and Jill turned and saw that he had a rocket launcher hoisted on his shoulder.

Spying an open case next to him, Rebecca said, "So that's what was in the back."

Grinning, Jill grabbed Rebecca and pulled her out of the way, once the two were clear, Chris pulled the trigger.

As the rocket kicked away from Chris, he smirked and murmured, "Hasta la vista, baby." Dropping the launcher he aimed his gun and fired at it when it reached the creature, causing it to instantly explode.

Rebecca covered her ears and tightly shut her eyes as the loud explosion sent tufts of sand in every direction. She opened her eyes when she heard a crash and saw that the jeep had fallen to the ground a few feet away.

"Is it dead?" she yelled.

With one eye open, Jill shrugged and looked to where the creature had been. It was gone and the storm raging around them was slowly fading away.

"Nice going," Jill shouted to Chris as she headed towards him. "Did you just say hasta la vista?"

Rebecca laughed.

Before Chris could answer, he felt the ground underneath him begin to move. The sand shifted and he was swallowed into it, almost as if he'd never been there. A loud gurgling sound belted from where the jeep sat and within seconds it had vanished as well.

"What the hell," Jill said. Her own legs began to sink and she struggled as she was sucked downward. "Rebecca, run."

Rebecca got to her feet and raced towards Jill. "No, no, no, no, no, no," she repeated as Jill sank away. She dropped to her knees and started digging into the sand when she didn't fall through as well. "Guys, don't do this to me." When her fingers met with hard ground, she stopped and sat back, staring at the sand.

Biting her lip, Rebecca slowly walked over to where Chris, Jill and the jeep had sunk and raked her hands through her hair when she didn't fall as well.

Okay, get it together, she thought. There is some logical explanation here...I just wish I could figure it out.

Rebecca took out her cell and checked the coordinates. She wasn't too far off from where the plane was supposed to have gone silent at and since sinkholes didn't decide who and what it gulped down, she knew there had to be something under the sand. It wasn't as if she'd never come across anything like that before so she knew all that was left was finding the entrance.

That was the true question. Not quite where the others had gone but how she got there herself. For the moment, she was alone and she shuddered to think of what else might be lurking in the desert.

Taking inventory of what little supplies she had on her person, Rebecca swore counted a few clips in her sidepack, as well as a small medical kit and a few other things. The rest of her items were in that car but she'd survived much worse with less; a certain train crash came to mind.

Unwilling to let her thoughts delve further into those particular events she looked around, trying to decide which way she should investigate first. She needed to concentrate on this mission and find her team, not think about...

Adjusting her goggles and making sure her bandana was secure, Rebecca spotted a small hill to the east and decided it was better than nothing and marched towards it.


End file.
